Yuki Bhambri was playing his first singles match since Wimbledon, but said he did not feel rusty at all as he took the court against 9th seeded and former ATP #39 Radu Albot. Bhambri won the match in straight sets, 7-6(4) 6-4. He will take on up and coming 23 year old Belgian Zizou Bergs next.
Bhambri caught up with ITD post match to share his thoughts on the match, his practice session with Nick Kyrgios a day before, his partnership with Saketh Myneni, and much more –
Q) Thoughts on the match today. You’ve played against Albot twice in 2015, with a 1-1 record. How much has changed from then till now?
YB: 2015 is a long time ago, and it doesn’t really mean much what the record is that point. But I think Albot plays a fairly similar game or for at least the last couple of years that I’ve seen him on tour, so not much has changed that way.
But at the end of the day I think I just had to be consistent and play my own game and not really worry about who is across the net.
Q) You haven’t been playing a lot of singles on the main tour recently. Is there any specific reason behind that? Do you feel rusty at all playing singles at the Slams because of this reason?
YB: I don’t really feel rusty. I feel like I’ve been playing a lot of tennis, I feel a lot more comfortable playing on hard courts so yeah whether it’s singles or doubles, it’s the same. You still have to serve, you still have to hit your groundstrokes. So I’ve been feeling okay and hopefully can continue and keep winning as much as I can.
Q) You’ve been having a great run with Saketh (Myneni) in doubles. Thoughts on the season so far? And your goals for the future?
YB: Yeah doubles with Saketh has been great, we’ve had a few wins. We would like to do better, as I think we’re capable of doing better. And naturally the goal is to keep improving and keep pushing ourselves as much as we can. Obviously, we’d like to end the year well and hopefully try and play a Grand Slam together – maybe Australia. So that would I guess be a goal that I think both of us would like.
Q) How will your singles schedule look like in the near future, after your PR limit is over?
YB: I still have a lot of tournaments and a long time for my PR events, so I’m taking it one tournament at a time, one match at a time. I haven’t really thought that far ahead.
Q) How was your experience of hitting with Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios? Any interesting off-court conversation you had with him?
YB: It was a good session with Nick, obviously I’ve seen him around on the Tour for a very long time now. Good practice for me, hopefully for him as well. A very serious and intense session. I think we sort of stuck to our tennis and both were focused on preparing as well as we can for the Open.
Q) On the next match against Zizou Bergs
I don’t know much about Zizou. We did play, I did play him in doubles I guess last week. But different obviously playing doubles and singles, so don’t really know much. But again I just got to go and play my game and try my best and you never know, hopefully come back with another win.
A few more photos from Yuki’s win against Albot (Credits – Matthew Reiter)
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